All posts by momofali

In case you haven’t been introduced, this is Aroldis Chapman. He took the Cincinnati Reds from scoreless after six innings, to a 6-1 win against Milwaukee last night.

He may as well have rode in on a horse and worn a cowboy hat. He was clearly looking for a showdown and his 1-2-3 pitches in the seventh inning looked as if they were flying as fast as bullets. Four of his eight pitches were over 100 mph. The batters barely had time to swing.

It’s not often that we tell our daughter to “quit reading and watch TV”, but we did last night. There was something about watching the 22 year old Chapman make his big league debut that made us take notice. Maybe it was his 86 mph slider.

The Reds are in first place in the NL Central and they’re playing better than they have for a long time, but at this point in the season I sure like having Aroldis Chapman on the team. Without his perfect inning last night, the Reds would have likely lost and I have seen them make that downhill slide one too many times.

One loss leads to another, and come mid-September, the fans have to start looking to next year. Not this time. Now we have hope. Now we have Aroldis.

Look at what showed up in my mailbox! Sigh. The Sports Illustrated College Football Preview is here and that means the time is near.

What does this mean? Well, it means that my Buckeyes will be soon be taking the field. I can almost hear the snap, taste the stadium dogs and feel the earth reverberating.

I see the blue sky and sense the crisp fall winds blowing the Big Ten (Eleven/Twelve) flags around the top of Ohio Stadium. I picture cringing at Cameron Heyward when he sacks Iowa’s Ricky Stanzi, a cringe which is followed closely by my screaming, “Yeeeeeeaaaaahh!” and a lot of high-fiving.

There is nothing better than a good sack.

That’s what she said.

Really, though? There is nothing better than college football.

Can my boys win a sixth straight Big Ten (Eleven/Twelve) title? Probably. Do they have a good chance at making it to the BCS Championship again? Possibly. Will I go ape-shit crazy when they take the field even if they go 4-8? Likely. (I originally had those stats at 2-10, but that’s really pushing it.)

I have been one of the Buckeye faithful since I was a child. I have followed them all over the country, including Arizona for their loss in the 2007 BCS Title Game. My heart, it hurts.

I have seen them win at Michigan, Penn State and Illinois. I have watched them lose at Indiana, Pittsburgh, Purdue (where I was assaulted by one of their fans…which may have had something to do with the megaphone on which I was blaring our fight song…I SO deserved it) and an Outback Bowl in Tampa. Why I travel to bowl games, I’ll never know.

Not true. I know. I go because they are my team.

I go because I am a fan.

I am tradition and history. I am Woody Hayes, Archie Griffin and The Best Damn Band in the Land. I am Cris Carter, Block “O” and the Victory Bell. I am Eddie George, Mirror Lake and “Carmen Ohio.”

As if it wasn’t enough for him to be a young, baby-faced, number one overall draft pick, the former Oklahoma quarterback just signed a record contract with the St. Louis Rams for six years, and a guaranteed $50 million.

Fifty million dollars. I can’t even afford to get rid of my 1997 Mercury so I can’t imagine what I would do with $50 million. Probably, at least, get some new shoes.

I will be the first to say that football is the finest form of entertainment and that the players deserve to be paid exceptionally well, but I also don’t think it would be so wrong for the NFL to compensate some of the league’s former players who were paid next to nothing, didn’t have sophisticated padding, have little as far as retirement goes, are stuck with Medicare for insurance and many of whom are suffering with injuries decades later.

Decades. Later. Just sayin’.

I’m not complaining about high salaries, because if I was being beat up and tossed around like a rag doll for my day job, I would want big money too.

I just don’t think the men who helped the league become what it is today, (i.e. an organization that can afford $50 million guarantees), should be forgotten.

More attention-grabbing than Lindsay Lohan, able to defame quarterbacks faster than Ben Roethlisberger can unzip his zipper at a college bar, and able to ruin a team in a season’s time. It’s a 49′er, it’s an Eagle, it’s a Cowboy, it’s a Bill, it’s a Bengal. It’s Terrell Owens.

That’s right, the Queen City has acquired the biggest homewrecker the NFL has ever seen. I could give you a million reasons why this move is crazy, but I only need one. This is the manchild who once said, “The only people that really matter are the people that are in my inner circle.” This means that he is an ass and a liar, because everyone knows that the only person who matters to Terrell is Terrell.

Ocho Crappo and T.O. on the same team? Truly. Two reality show wannabes not only sharing the same locker room, but the same field. Carson Palmer deserves better. T.O. will gather his pack of enablers and defame Palmer and the offense and take down the Bungals’ hopes of a division title and Super Bowl glory.

With plenty of company in the troublemaker department, including Tank Johnson (assault and unlawful possesion of a weapon), Antonio Bryant (wreckless and drunken driving), Cedric Benson (assault and DUI), at least T.O. may not have to worry about suspensions. What the hell happened to the team of my childhood? Boomer, can’t you do something about this?

All I know is that you can’t teach an old dog with diminished skills new tricks and especially to get a new attitude. Get your popcorn ready, but the drama is in town. If nothing else, it will be interesting to watch it play out. You know, kind of like a train wreck.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you are Joe Montana, legendary Notre Dame and NFL quarterback and three time Super Bowl MVP.

Life is good, you’re probably hanging on a beach somewhere, maybe doing some speaking engagements and enjoying your retirement.

Then your son gets arrested at a party for underage drinking in South Bend, Indiana. But really, who can fault the kid? It’s South Bend, Indiana. What the hell else should he be doing? I suppose there’s always cruising the main drag or people watching at WalMart.

Anyway, so, you’re Joe Montana. Are you more embarrassed that your son got arrested, or that the publicity it stirs up lets everyone know that your kid spent last season as a back-up quarterback at Pasadena City College?